Decoding Your Car Insurance Policy

Paying for car insurance is an ugly truth when it comes to being a responsible car owner. It’s important to factor in the cost of a 6-month premium when deciding what your budget it for a car purchase. Types of cars can even have a huge impact on your car insurance costs and you can research the safety ratings of all makes and models at Cars.com.

Once you do have a policy in place, do you ever bother taking a close look at what’s actually in there? It’s not as complicated as it may seem at first glance and the insurance company even gives you their own version of Cliff’s notes on what’s called the declaration page in your policy documents. Here, you can see the coverage limitations for specific scenarios.

Coverage limits that affect other people include bodily injury liability and property damage liability for incidents that are determined to be your fault. These coverages come into play if when behind the wheel of your car, you either hurt another person physically, or hurt another person’s property. You should see coverage limits listed here with maximums per person or per occurrence.

The other coverage components protect you and your passengers in the event you’re involved in an accident that’s caused by someone else. Uninsured motorist coverage is an important component of your policy and is even mandatory in most states. Having car insurance in mandatory in most states, but people find ways to get around the law. If you’re in an accident with a person that doesn’t have insurance to pay for your damages, you’ll be left to cover those costs yourself, and you’ll be glad you included uninsured motorist coverage. This component is typically further broken down into bodily harm caused by uninsured motorists, property damage caused by uninsured motorists, and bodily harm and property damage caused by drivers who have some insurance, but not enough to cover the damage you have.